Just a moment, what's this? Actually playing games? I thought the World Series trophy parade was today with the duckboats, et al? Surely MLB doesn't think we actually need a season to sully (that's sully as in demean, not Sully from fackin Reveah) the coronation of the most gritty, dirt on the uniform, playing for the love of the game, small market, don't buy championships, housed in the most historic and beloved building team in the universe?

Opening Day, I'm all warm and fuzzy despite the weather.
Anyone else notice all the empty seats at Busch Stadium yesterday while the game was still tied in extras? For a fan base that claims to be the most devoted bestest of them all, it was pretty surprising.

Yeah chucks - almost as many empty seats as the box seats at the toilet... Loved the camera angle from center field that showed 3 of every 4 seats empty. I guess it was too cold out for the mfy fans to show up.

h.b., you seem to have missed what I said yesterday regarding the ESPN pundits. The strip mentioned that 33 of 45 picked the Sox to win the WS. Equally impressive to me is that all 45 picked the Sox to win the AL East.

Steve, that insult to the Yankees fanbase was 100% grit and heart with not even a hint of pink hat involved...so much so that it was in fact lofty: Mike Barnicle, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Peter Gammons, Gordon Edes and also the entire staff of ESPN loved it while they were all jockeying to get Theo another cup of coffee.

Happy Birthday, Soxaholix. I forgot that the site started in 2004, best yeah eva for Sox fans! Nice work, HB. By the way, I'm wondering if my wife will mind if I bring my Cloud Girlfriend to a game this summer. http://www.cloudgirlfriend.com/

Uh, oh. Seven year itch? Is hb going to abandon us midway through the season for a younger, sexier group of commenters? :)

Happy anniversary! Great day all around. I shall be spending it in my version of heaven: shooting some golf balls down at Chelsea Pier, taking a run in CP with the dog, and finding a Sox bar to watch Opening Day with some friends (any recs from NYC Soxaholix?). Hope you all have equally killer Fridays planned. GO SOX!

I remember fondly the day the light came on and I stumbled down this creepy rabbit hole of diversion and perversion. After all this time, I have never figured out what "ditka" signifies, but to be honest, I haven't spent too much time trying to deconstruct the puzzle. This dark place has fed me Red Sox gruel on days when it sustained me and introduced me to literary and "cultural" references and subjects that an older gentleman such as myself has no business knowing about.

And then there was the whole Lost thing, but who wants to be reminded of that?

It's nice to know such literate people with such singleminded need toverbally

Don't you get it? The Happy Happy act is an April Fools Day pile-o-crap. Sure, we'd expect a "I'm quitting, ... just joking" gag but this is more insidious.

This is the calm after the fake drop on the old roller coaster at Paragon Park. This is when you think everything's going to be okay and then CRASH BANG BOOM Batman fight scene mayhem ensues.

Mark my words, H.B. has it out for us. Seven long years pretending to like us just for this day of sweet sweet revenge. A long way to go for a gag you say? (how long is it? That's rather a personal question Sir) Remember H.B. is a student of the classics like "The Count of Monte Cristo", "Moby Dick" and most any Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson film from the 70s!

Good one, LC. I even Googled "toverbally" thinking it was a word I didn't know. Your post reminded me that the Soxaholix delivers the "cultural" and the literary references we need. A while ago, HB quoted from Auden's "As I walked out one evening," which has since become a favorite of mine, one particularly appropriate on birthdays. Thanks, HB. Here's the poem: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15551